Kids in Southern California are blessed with an abundance of family attractions and activities. It's a pretty short drive from our San Fernando Valley home to Disneyland, California Adventure, LegoLand, Magic Mountain, Hurricane Harbor and more. My daughter and I love it.
I wish I could say the same for my husband. He HATES amusement parks, with a passion. Getting him to agree to a Disneyland trip is like pulling hair (and if you've seen my husband, you know he doesn't have a lot of hair to spare).
Thank goodness for Sea World. The San Diego marine park is one of the few places in SoCal that offers something for everyone in our family: Animal exhibits, entertainment and rides -- with the added attraction of comfortable ocean breezes.
I've been enjoying the park since right after it opened in 1964. My husband and I visited before we were married, and then again on our honeymoon. It continued to be a favorite destination after our daughter was born and we discovered that it contains one of the best children's play areas I've ever seen.
So I was delighted to receive an invitation to the grand opening of the play area's newest incarnation, as the Sesame Street Bay of Play. It has all the wild and wonderful features we enjoyed when Megan was a toddler -- with the addition of three gentle rides and Sesame Street characters. And now that our daughter is in her "terrible tweens," I am nostalgic for those sweet days when I could rest my feet after a long day of shows and animals, and sit on a shady bench while husband and child climbed nets as high as the sky.
Here's some video I took of the Bay of Play's unveiling:
And here's Megan's kid's eye view of the Bay of Play:
Don't you love the way she protests that she's only there because her mom is making her... and then proceeds to have fun despite herself?
At least, she was not too cool for the park's other attractions, which include amazing animal shows and opportunities to get up close and personal with sharks, whales, dolphins, penguins and seals.
The Memorial Day crowds (combined with the fact that we got up at 5:00 a.m. to drive to San Diego) prevented us from seeing EVERYTHING there was to see at Sea World, but we managed to sample quite a bit of the park (including two times on the Journey to Atlantis ride). Want to see how we spent the rest of our day?
Our Day at Sea World from Donna Schwartz Mills on Vimeo.
Some day, we would love to do the Breakfast with Shamu or the Dolphin Encounter. Sea World also offers an amazing camp program where your kid can spend a week interacting with the marine biologists and trainers who work there.
Wanna know how we spent the rest of our time in San Diego? Visit me at my main blog, SoCal Mom.
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